What a headline from the San Diego Union-Tribune:
"Duke Cunningham, war hero turned corrupt congressman, dies at 83"
Old heads will remember the 2006 special election in #CA50 to replace Cunningham after he resigned— The Downballot (@the-downballot.com) August 29, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Us old heads remember Duke whenever our Very Serious Media Pundits claim that the current Oval Office Occupant represents a tawdry betrayal of established GOP norms. Per Trip Gabriel at the NYTimes, “Duke Cunningham, 83, Congressman Convicted in Corruption Scandal, Dies” [gift link]:
Former Representative Duke Cunningham, an ace fighter pilot elected to Congress from San Diego whose combat heroics in Vietnam were forever marred by a bribery scandal that sent him to federal prison, died on Wednesday in Little Rock, Ark. He was 83.
His death, in a hospital, was announced on social media by his family. No cause was cited.
One of only two Navy aviators in the Vietnam era to be confirmed an ace for shooting down five enemy planes, Mr. Cunningham, whose given name was Randall, was recruited by Republican Party activists to run for Congress in 1990. He was re-elected repeatedly and sat on the powerful Appropriations and Intelligence committees, where he abused his power to win favors for military contractors in exchange for at least $2.4 million in cash, gifts and benefits.
He pleaded guilty in federal court in 2005 to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit bribery. Among the favors he accepted from defense contractors were a Rolls-Royce, free rent on a live-aboard yacht, the Duke-Stir, moored on the Potomac River, and a sweetheart sale of his San Diego County home for nearly $1 million above market value.
The San Diego Union-Tribune exposed the corruption beginning in June 2005, revealing that a defense contractor bought Mr. Cunningham’s house for $1.675 million, then sold it at a $700,000 loss. Shortly after, the contractor began winning millions of dollars in defense and intelligence-related deals from the government. The newspaper’s coverage won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, which it shared with its sister organization, the Copley News Service.
Mr. Cunningham was sentenced to more than eight years in prison, one of the longest sentences handed to a former congressman for corruption. He was released in 2013. President Trump pardoned him just before the end of his first term in January 2021…
In his 15 years in office, Mr. Cunningham was outspoken on partisan politics and an opponent of gay rights. He once said that Democratic leaders in the House should be “lined up and shot.” Speaking on the House floor, he used a slur to refer to gay soldiers in the military and crudely insulted Barney Frank, the openly gay congressman from Massachusetts. (He subsequently apologized for both comments.)
Mr. Cunningham also called for stiff penalties, up to the death penalty, for drug dealers. When his son, Randall Todd Cunningham, was charged with smuggling 400 pounds of marijuana, the congressman tearfully pleaded for leniency before a Boston judge. His son was sentenced to two and a half years…
After the initial news report in 2005 that Mr. Cunningham had sold his house two years earlier to a defense contractor, Mitchell J. Wade, and then used the inflated proceeds to buy a bigger, more expensive home, the F.B.I. opened an investigation. Both men’s homes were raided by agents.
Another military contractor, Brent Wilkes, gave more than $630,000 in cash directly or indirectly to Mr. Cunningham, according to the congressman’s plea agreement, in exchange for Mr. Cunningham’s help in landing millions of dollars in federal business.
In addition to the large cash sums the contractors gave Mr. Cunningham, they issued many smaller payments to cover a lavish lifestyle, including $7,200 to an antiques store for a Louis Phillipe-period commode and four armoires, $7,500 for his fees at the Capital Yacht Club, and $2,000 for one of his daughters’ graduation party.
Many of the bribes were paid to Mr. Cunningham’s company, Top Gun Enterprises.
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Randall Harold “Duke” Cunningham was like if you distilled all the most horrible parts of 80s conservatism into a fine powder that you had to snort
— Trung Le Nguyen (@trungles.com) August 24, 2025 at 5:59 PM
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The 109th session of Congress will always be fondly remembered as the golden age of Republican corruption. Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, Curt Weldon, Randall "Duke" Cunningham, Rick Renzi…
— mrspanstreppon (@jamiepeppard.bsky.social) August 23, 2025 at 12:10 PM
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RIP to legendarily corrupt Congressman Duke Cunningham.
I believe I am now clear to share one of the wildest off record anecdotes I ever heard. www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2025/08/28/d…— Hunter Walker (@hunterw.bsky.social) August 29, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Shalimar
I never liked the Union-Tribune when I lived in San Diego. Like them even less now.
“Give us your email address so we can spam you endlessly to read this article for free”
Fine.
“Disable your ad blocker so you can read this article for free”
Fine
“Give us money so you can read this article”
Fuck you.
satby
The felon pardoned another felon. Figures.
Deputinize America
I hope it fucking hurt when he died.
Gloria DryGarden
OT
Apparently a variety of international journalist unions are holding a media blackout on sept 1, today, to protest the murders and targeting of journalists in Gaza. I’m just reading about this from “how to survive the broligarchy” a substack which one can subscribe to for free. How to survive the broligarchy
mrmoshpotato
Those corruption scandals are adorable childplays.
Splitting Image
Cunningham is the namesake of the Golden Duke Awards, given out annually by Talking Points Memo to those public figures who elevate grift and shamelessness to an art form.
It all seems like a quaint exercise in the Gilt Painted Age, but they had a good run.
Scout211
Speaking of grifters, she’s not in office anymore, but she set herself up nicely while she was in office. In fact, it was rumored that setting herself up for grift was all she did in her final years in office.
. . .
And for the weird:
eclare
@Scout211:
Ibogaine is a new one to me, I had to google.
Soapdish
Came to mention the Golden Dukes as well as how patzer level the grift seems today but I see I’ve already been beaten to the punch on both accounts. Oh well.
Glidwrith
As I recall, Cunningham was succeeded by the corrupt Darrel Issa, who was then run out of office only to move to a nearby San Diego district and get elected there.
He keeps quiet nowadays but is just as corrupt.
Adjacent district to Issa was
Hunter BidenDuncan Hunter, Sr and then Junior. Junior was stupid enough to go to jail for his corruption along with wife for being extremely blatant using taxpayer funds for everything from groceries to kids braces and trips to Greece.Scout211
I think you mean Duncan Hunter.
Glidwrith
@Scout211: Oh shit! Literally no caffeine in my veins yet. Cannot believe I switched names like that.
Anne Laurie, if you would, please delete my post!
Elizabelle
California Republicans. And a district or two or three away, we had Dana Rohrabacher. The sleaze from these Defense-related grifters.
Defense of Putin, in Rohrabacher’s case.
Saw Cunningham’s obit this weekend and just thought “good.” Turned himself into a waste of breath.
kindness
Trump2.0 woulda made Duke a Secretary of something or other. Just as long as he remembered to wet Trump’s beak too.